Emergency Repairs
by TheGirlWhoRemembers
Summary: Emergency repairs might hold for 36 hours or so, but after that, you've got to fix it properly or it'll fall apart. Or, the fallout. Episode tag to 2.23, MacGyver and MacGyver.


AN: Obviously, lots and lots and lots of spoilers for the ep!

* * *

 **MACGYVER'S RESIDENCE**

 **(MACGYVER THE YOUNGER'S RESIDENCE)**

 **(SINCE THE DIY DOESN'T MAKE IT OBVIOUS)**

 **LA**

* * *

'Mac, come on, son! We got those amazing burgers you used to, like, write sonnets about when we were in the Sandbox! And we got pie, apple pie, your favourite! And Ri's just dropped in and she brought rocky road ice-cream, I know you can never resist that…'

Jack banged ineffectually on Mac's bedroom door, then tried to no avail to turn the doorknob.

(He knew that he'd never get through a door that Mac had locked, but he knew it was important to try. Important to show his partner that he was trying.)

There was a loud sound that sounded far too much like an explosion for Jack's liking, followed by his partner's voice, which sounded every inch like a hurt, sulking teenager's.

(Mac had had to grow up way too fast. Sometimes, Jack thought, that meant that he regressed from time to time, back to those stages of life he never really got to fully experience.)

'I'm not hungry!'

Bozer stuck his head into the hallway, still wearing his _Kiss the Cook_ apron, a questioning and very worried look on his face. Jack just shook his head, and Mac's best friend's shoulders slumped.

Jack turned back to Mac's resolutely sealed bedroom door, and banged twice more on it to ensure he got the blonde's attention, before calling through it again.

'Well, if you change your mind, there's plenty of grub!'

Mac didn't respond, but Jack assumed he'd heard him, and trudged back towards the kitchen, not having any appetite himself.

* * *

As they picked at their dinner, none of them really tasting it, despite the fact that Bozer's cooking was delicious, as usual, Jack, Matty, Bozer and Riley sat in silence.

Eventually, the hacker broke it, almost hesitantly. Sounding confessional, even, looking down at her plate, as if she couldn't quite meet their eyes.

'The Coltons gave me an offer to come work with them.' She looked up, and glanced at Jack, then Bozer, for the tiniest second, then down the corridor towards Mac's bedroom, from which loud clanking sounds and the occasional small explosion were still sounding out. 'It's…it's not easy for me and Billy, being so far apart…' She swallowed, looking down at her plate, then looked back up at the three of them. 'I'm thinking of taking it.'

There was silence for a long, long moment, as they all contemplated, processed, the events of the last 48 hours, and this latest bit of news on top of it.

Matty's eyes were sad, but there was something in there that seemed like acceptance. Like a blessing, almost.

Bozer looked shocked, almost shell-shocked, but at the same time, there was understanding in his eyes. Empathy. He got it.

Jack, however, just shook his head repeatedly. Vehemently. Firmly.

'No, no, you _can't,_ Ri.' He shook his head again. 'This…this family can't fall apart, not after everything we've been through together!' Jack thwacked his hand on the table. 'I won't let it!' He pointed at the hacker. 'You can't do this to us, Riles, not now, not ever!'

He looked at the young woman who was the closest thing to a daughter, to a child, he'd ever, ever had, something very hurt and betrayed in his eyes, then got up without a word and stormed towards the front door, as if intending to leave.

Bozer and Matty could only watch and exchange a glance as Riley, shocked and wounded and with, they swore, tears beginning to pool in her eyes, just stared at Jack, half getting up from her seat as if to follow him, seemingly unsure if she should scold him and yell at him for being so presumptuous and possessive and an _ass_ or just reach out and cry into his chest.

(Jack Dalton had a temper, they all knew that.)

(And he loved deeply, so, so deeply.)

(Loved Riley and Mac as if they were his own flesh and blood, been and was a better father to them than their own had ever been. Or ever would be.)

(They knew he could never bear to lose them.)

Jack had just laid a hand on the front door when the doorbell rang.

He opened the door, to find James MacGyver standing on the other side.

The two men stared at each other for a long, long moment, each seeing a mirror of their own emotions in the other's eyes.

Anger. Hurt. Betrayal. Pain.

Of the very worst kind.

Of the kind inflicted by those you trusted, you loved.

By your _family._

James MacGyver (Jack refused to think of him as Oversight or Sir, he did not deserve that respect, not after what he'd forced Mac into doing) looked absolutely, utterly furious. As if he'd scorch and salt the Earth below his enemies.

He also looked as if he'd been crying.

As if he might actually cry again.

Mac's father spoke softly, voice hoarse and with the most emotion Jack had ever heard from the man.

(And, he thought, probably ever would.)

'I need to speak to Angus. _Please.'_

There was a pleading, almost _begging_ note in his voice.

Something that Jack just knew had probably not graced the man's voice for years and years.

Jack stared into his eyes for a long, long moment again, and some modicum of understanding passed between them.

(Big boss or not, Jack would break that man without losing a wink of sleep if he hurt Mac again.)

(He had to make sure that he knew that.)

James MacGyver gave the tiniest, slightest of nods of acceptance, and Jack nodded back, then called out down the corridor towards his partner's room.

'Mac…you gotta come out, son. There's somebody who really, really, really needs to talk to you. And…trust me, brother…I think you _really_ wanna hear what he's got to say.'

There was silence and tension through the whole house for a long moment. Then, slowly, after several clicks and clacks and clinks, the door to Mac's bedroom slowly opened.

The blonde stepped out, hair wild, grease on his cheeks, his hands and his clothes, eyebrows slightly singed and eyes red as if he'd been crying, expression stony as he stared down the corridor at his father.

Jack just gestured a little awkwardly towards the dining room, where Matty was nudging Riley and Bozer out towards the deck.

'I'll just be outside toasting marshmallows…holler if you need me, brother.'

Mac tore his eyes away from his father for a moment to give Jack a grateful nod, and the elder MacGyver glanced between the two of them for the briefest of seconds.

(Mac swore he saw something akin to pain…or even jealousy…in there for a moment, then kicked himself internally.)

(He had to be imagining things. And if he wasn't, he couldn't trust what he saw anyway.)

(He couldn't trust this man.)

(Couldn't.)

James MacGyver held up his hands, seeming to have to put effort into making his expression open.

'I know you don't want to see me or talk to me, Angus. I know you don't trust me. And that you've resigned.' He swallowed. 'And…and I accept that.' He held out his phone, which had a video clip on it, ready to be played. 'But…there's something you need to know.'

With a little hesitation, but also probably far more curiosity than was good for him, Mac took his dad's phone and played the video.

* * *

Thirty seconds later, he looked up at his dad, tears welling in his eyes, shaking his head.

'No, no…it can't be true, Mom died of cancer!'

James MacGyver just shook his head, swallowing a lump in his own throat, and gestured at his phone.

'Walsh sent another file. Read it.'

Mac, fingers shaking, opened the file and read.

Or, more accurately, looked.

 _Aflatoxins are highly carcinogenic – that means cancer-causing – compounds produced by certain species of Aspergillus moulds._

 _This…this is a synthetic derivative that is 500 times more carcinogenic._

 _Guess KX7 isn't the first time Jonah Walsh has dabbled in organic chemistry for evil._

Tears welling in his eyes even as he did everything he could to force them back, anger coursing through his veins even as he tried to restrain it, Mac looked up at his father, who just spoke, eyes hard with grief and anger and vengeance.

'What do you say, son? One last mission?'

Mac nodded.

* * *

AN: Yes, I know, it's cruel to leave it there…but never fear! This is the lead-in to my version of Season 3, which will be titled _The Path Not Taken._ I'm very, very busy over the next couple of weeks, but I'm hoping to get the first 'episode' up in two weeks' time. Here's the 'press release' to tide you over until then:

3.01, D. I. Why? The MacGyvers go on an extremely personal father-son mission, while back in LA, Bozer and Riley contemplate the futures of their careers and relationships and Jack and Matty worry about the 'kids'.

Thoughts on the ep itself: I enjoyed it very much and I think they handled the big reveal and Mac's relationship with his dad well, even though it's also tearing me apart inside! No, don't destroy this family! You can't! You can't, I won't let you, _MacGyver_ writers! Anyway, more of my thoughts on the ep and which way the story is going to take next season will be found in _The Path Not Taken._

(I'm currently planning it out – in quite great detail – so do let me know if there's anything you want to see, from opening gambits to missions!)

EDIT: _The Path Not Taken_ is now up! The first episode is up, and the second will be coming out this Sunday.


End file.
